It's Rocket Science, Baby!

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Ariane 30th anniversary: 30 years of Ariane - a success story.

On 24 December 1979, Ariane made its first flight from French Guyana marking the beginning of 30 years of success and giving Europe a guaranteed independant access to Space.

With Ariane ESA could develop its own programmes in many different domains: Telecommunications, Earth Observation, Satellites, Science and Exploration. With Ariane Europe was the pionneer in the civil launch space market, with the creation of Arianespace, which is now the world leading space transportation company.

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Arianespace powers on with 30 years of launches

24 December 1979: The new European launcher lifted off from the South American launch site at Kourou, French Guyana, with thundering engines a day of enormous importance for the entire European space effort. This was the first time that the member states of the European Space Agency (ESA) launched their own rocket into space the foundation stone of the extraordinary success story of the Ariane launcher system.

The German Institute of Aviation and Spaceflight Research and Development (Deutsche Forschungs- und Versuchsanstalt für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DFVLR), the forerunner of todays DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt), played an essential role in the story. It was at the Institutes testing facility near Heilbronn that the Viking rocket engines were tested and qualified.

This historic first launch was a milestone in commercial space flight, but the road to success was beset with innumerable hurdles and stumbling blocks. Understandably enough, there was little need for rocket science in post-war Germany. The first seed for a future rocket programme was sown at the end of the fifties in Baden-Württemberg.

Rocket researcher Eugen Sänger established the Rocket Engine Research Institute (Forschungsinstitut für Physik der Strahlantriebe) in Stuttgart, which later set up a test facility in the Harthäuser Forest near Heilbronn. In autumn 1962, the first tests were conducted using the new engine test stands for what was still a national rocket programme. Test stand P2 was already able to test engines with a thrust of 100 tons.

Learn more: http://www.dlr.de/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-1/86_read-21578/

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Credits:
• http://www.esa.int/
• ESA/CNES/Arianespace - Chris Hein
• Edited by: Best0fScience/WissensMagazin
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Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• ariane
• esa
• european
• space
• agency
• rockets
• science
• kourou
• french
• guyana
• transportation
• launch
• flights
• research
• hubble
• telescopes
• satellites
• iss
• international
• station
• 30
• years
• 30th
• anniversary

[saxmanchiro]

Ahhh, Science, The quest for truth. At the age of ten, 3 yrs after watching John Glenn orbit the earth, I knew that science was my destiny. Also, that yr, I figured out that the only adults that did not lie to children were scientists. All the other adults around me did. Like Santa and the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy, god too was just fairytale. Thanks to science and it's proven method, I have had 44 yrs of blissful godlessness. Thank you Science!!!

[KaelHunter]

As a species, we build some cool shit. I just wish we could build less tanks and concentrate on space.

[happinesson]

a great history of space quest, experimentation and discovery! Nice video presentation. Very entertaining.

[dobberdoss]

Ok, here's a suggestion, take it to 'MYTHBUSTERS'. I did not make it up.

Speed (even at 800kmph over 26 hours (13 hour return trip) does distort time. Time is only relative. How long is a second to a 'fly' or a 'bee' for instance?. Even the nervous system plays a role. Thanks for replying

[fastLupus]

Uh yes... are you serious here? A time diff. of 2 minutes(!!!) with the speed that you are traveling in an plane is physically impossible. I see two possibilities here, one you made some mistake with the two clocks (extremely expensive scientific caesium-clocks you claim to own) or you just flat out made it up. Can you guess what i believe happens ?

Two minutes gravitational redshift...ridiculous.

[TishaLane306]

huhutag und nacht träume ich davon dass sich jemnd findet der mich vor meiner langweile erlöst^^

[dobberdoss]

try it and see. Your doubts are understandable but so were mine i thought. Difference was 2 minutes. Speed as you know has the effect of slowing/worping linear time. The effect can be experienced without necessarily approaching SofL. One for Mythbusters you reckon?

[puncheex]

Hmmmmmm. I doubt you would be able to see a difference in that short (and slow) of a trip; I would thenink the time difference would be in the microseconds, at best. Also, you'd want to swap watches at the end and do the trip again, in order to average out the differences between the watches. You'd want to control for environment (temperature, humidity, etc) as well.

[omegavalerius]

See the things we can do together Europe? Lets follow the example of scientists at ESA and CERN. You know it might just take us to the stars.

[dobberdoss]

Try this observation. Get 2 identical stop watches( or watches) and set both off at the exact same time. Leave one at home and take the other withyou on a plane flight say from London to San Fran distance ( at least one third around the globe). Then fly back. Now when you get home compare the two times on both stop watches. Ive done it. It's quite amazing.

[sorry8140]

luvit

[dangerouslytalented]

so basically what you are saying is that it is a versatile vehicle and is capable of recieving many upgrades before it gets replaced?